I did a quick search before asking but didnt found much info about it. So the question is, has anyone been able to run Asterisk on puppy.

I got some of those cool norhtec MicroClient and I wonder if I can have an asterisk server with it. I am not sure if I can download compilers and all that from pup since I just havent tried it enough but I hope this is possible.

please anyone comment on having this setup._________________Puppy on a MicroClient Jr

I had the 1.2 branch of asterisk working on puppy 2.10. The 1.4 branch should be easier to package, since you can use a install prefix when building. If you want the conferencing to work, the zaptel kernel modules must be available to use for timing. After I read the new docs on petgets, I'll see if I can package 1.4 for puppy.

As for why one would want a live distro running asterisk, there are several reasons. Droops and I have been working on the slast distro for a while and we've found it a handy way to show off the features of asterisk by simply booting the disk and using some scripts we wrote to save/restore the configs via (s)ftp. In a matter of minutes, you can have your pbx up and running at a remote site and be able to send and receive calls as normal. Also, as compared to trixbox, it has the advantage of forcing you to understand how the asterisk configs work and gives you much more flexibility in your dialplan in the long run.

Asterisk is a complete PBX in software. It runs on Linux, BSD, Windows and OS X and provides all of the features you would expect from a PBX and more. Asterisk does voice over IP in four protocols, and can interoperate with almost all standards-based telephony equipment using relatively inexpensive hardware.

PBX=Private branch exchange.

In some places they call it commuter.

It is the box that sits in front of all the phones in an office that routes calls to the appropriate extension.

Of course modern PBX systems do more than that such as recording voicemail, recording calls, providing menu driven information (for customer service please press 1... etc)

Trixbox is very cool and probably a good way to get started with asterisk. For most end users it will probably meet their needs fine in the long term. Writing your own configs/dialplans does have a steep learning curve at first, but it's not too bad after the first couple of weeks.

As a quick intro to asterisk for the uninitiated, as rarsa said at it's core it's just a phone switch in software. It has voicemail, call queues, music on hold, conferencing, call monitoring and recording, message waiting indication, text to speech, and several other nice features. The best thing about it though is that it supports running scripts in response to dialed inputs which means you can build applications to suit your needs. For instance, you can fairly easily build a script and dialplan to implement an automated wake-up call. Or create a small app that will tie into X10 applications and let you call home and dial an extension and passcode to turn on your front porch light or adjust the thermostat before you get there. There are also functions to push and pull data from a sql database, so the options really are endless.

For those interested here are some great resources:
Asterisk website: http://asterisk.org
Asterisk section of a great voip wiki: http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=Asterisk
Asterikast video blogs: http://www.asterikast.com/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=7

Sorry if I get too excited about it, but I really think asterisk is a killer app in the same vein as apache or mysql...

Not only is Asterisk a pbx but it can be an entire interbranch exchange environment via their IAX protocol. Simply put a far flung enterprise in mulitple cities could set up private prefixes so that a call from Dallas to Chicago could be programmed as *54 (for Chicago) and then the internal Nxx station ID. And it still be treated as a local call.

I have only fooled with it a little but it's powerful stuff. With the right hardware you too could be the next HSC!

I had the 1.2 branch of asterisk working on puppy 2.10. The 1.4 branch should be easier to package, since you can use a install prefix when building. If you want the conferencing to work, the zaptel kernel modules must be available to use for timing. After I read the new docs on petgets, I'll see if I can package 1.4 for puppy.

I've tried (unsuccessfully) to complile both the latest 1.2 and 1.4 (stable) branches of asterisk. the first problem I encountered was easily fixable (asterisk expects awk to be in /usr/bin/). The second error I can't seem to resolve. The compile fails while compiling editline with a very non-descriptive error message. I believe it is possibly having problems finding the termcap headers.

In the spirit of small and lightweight apps, I have loaded Astlinux on a thumbdrive and booted it up first time, no probs....but! [big but]...astlinux is a stripped down version of asterisk that is so small and text based, that you would have to know how to hand edit lots of config files and know asterisk quite well to get it to make and receive calls. (unlike trixbox).

It would be great if you had the stripped down source for the astlinux (minus their linux kernel) and could add it to puppy.

I have searched for this topic on the web but could not find much. (Through trial and error), here are the steps I came up with to successfully install Asterisk 10 (latest) on an old Acer AspireOne netbook with 1G RAM and a 8G SSD, and make it a useful VOIP pbx box so I can have free Canada/US incoming and outgoing calls through Google Voice and freephoneline.ca as Trunks. The Atom CPU-based netbook is perfect as a pbx appliance because it does not generate much heat or consume much electricity even if it is on all the time.

1. Frugal install Puppylinux 5.2.8 (or your favourite flavour/version of Puppy) with devx.sfs loaded on the netbook so it can compile programs from source
2. Download iksemel source from http://code.google.com/p/iksemel, and extract source to a temporary folder (iksemel is needed to set up Google Voice Trunk)
3. Create a /usr/bin/libgnutls-config file to fix a iksemel compile issue (see http://code.google.com/p/iksemel/issues/detail?id=29); chmod +x /usr/bin/libgnutls-config
4. cd to the iksemel folder
5. ./configure --with-libgnutls-prefix=/usr --prefix=/usr
6. make && make install [iksemel is now installed]
7. Download Asterisk 10 source from http://www.asterisk.org/downloads
8. Extract source to a temporary folder
9. cd to the asterisk folder
10. ./configure --prefix=/usr
11. make menuselect (a menu will come up)
12. make sure channel gtalk and resource jabber are checked; also check optional sound in ulaw
13. make
14. make install
15. make samples (Asterisk 10 should be installed)
16. To make asterisk start up automatically on boot, add this line to /etc/rc.d/rc.local: /usr/sbin/safe_asterisk
17. To connect to a running asterisk, type asterisk -vvvvvvvvcr in a terminal
18 install openssh in puppy so it can be managed remotely
19. setup puppy firewall to allow (only) 22/tcp, 4569/udp, 5060/udp, 5222/tcp, 10000-20000/udp
20. set up port forward in router (22/tcp, 4569/udp, 5060/udp, 5222/tcp, 10000-20000/udp) for outside to reach the pbx
21. I'll share my asterisk config for a simple home telephone system using 2 trunks (Google Voice and freephoneline.ca) in the next post. Using this setup, I can make/receive free calls via my Android smartphone (or iphone for that matter) over mobile data/wifi without using up my mobile minutes.

I hope someone would find this useful. Comments/feedback is welcome.Last edited by timothyli on Mon 23 Apr 2012, 13:03; edited 2 times in total

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forumYou cannot attach files in this forumYou can download files in this forum